Facebook’s Simple Redesign Is Worth Noting

<Facebook> is readying an extensive overhaul of its core profile pages in an attempt to bring back the sleek aesthetic that helped fuel its early popularity… The moves come in reaction to Facebook’s becoming “more cluttered and harder for users to parse,” according to Katie Geminder, the site’s director of user experience and design… the redesign represents a major simplification.

My take: I really like Facebook’s move to simplicity. As I’ve mentioned in my work on disruptive customer experience strategies, offerings tend to get overly complex over time as companies add new features and capabilities. So there’s an opportunity to disrupt many industries with an ultra-simple alternative.

Facebook must keep involving its users in the redesign. The relationship between Facebook and its users is like a landlord and her tenants. While tenants recognize that the landlors owns the building, they don’t want her to redecorate their apartment at will; it’s their space.

The bottom line: My advice to Facebook: Keep it simple, keep it real.

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I am a customer experience transformist, helping large organizations improve business results by changing how they deal with customers. As part of this focus, I examine strategy, culture, interaction design, customer service, branding and leadership practices. I am also a fanatical student of business, so this blog provides an outlet for sharing insights from my ongoing educational journey.
Simply put, I am passionate about spotting emerging best practices and helping companies master them. And, as many people know, I love to speak about these topics in almost any forum.
My “title” is Managing Partner of the Temkin Group, a customer experience research and consulting firm that helps organizations become more customer-centric. Our goal is simple: accelerate the path to delighting customers.
I am also the co-founder and Emeritus Chair of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA.org), a non-profit organization dedicated to the success of CX professionals.